Chlorogalum angustifolium

Chlorogalum angustifolium is a species of flowering plant, known by the common name narrowleaf soap plant.

Chlorogalum angustifolium
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Monocots
Order: Asparagales
Family: Asparagaceae
Subfamily: Agavoideae
Genus: Chlorogalum
Species:
C. angustifolium
Binomial name
Chlorogalum angustifolium

Distribution

It is native to the Sierra Nevada foothills and inner North Coast Ranges of California, and the mountains of southern Oregon, where it grows in heavy, rocky soils in woodland and on grassy hillsides.

Description

Chlorogalum angustifolium is a perennial wildflower growing from a fibrous bulb a few centimeters wide. It has narrow basal leaves only a few millimeters wide.

The inflorescence may be up to 70 centimeters long and is composed of several ephemeral flowers which open in the evening and close by the following morning. Each has six tepals about a centimeter long which are white with yellow-green midveins. There are six stamens tipped with large yellow anthers.

The fruit is a capsule 1 to 3 millimeters long.

Uses

The indigenous Karuk people of northern California used the soapy juice from the crushed bulbs of this plant as a detergent for washing clothing.[1]

References
  1. University of Michigan at Dearborn: Native American Ethnobotany of Chlorogalum angustifolium


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